MET GALA 2022 Diamonds!!
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has been putting on a fundraiser for its Costume Institute since 1948.
This year's Met Gala was a presentation page for some of the glitziest glamour that walks the red carpet today, and a platform for current diamond tastes.
The fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute featured something close to a pantheon of today’s American fashion high society just as it brought back the high society theme to this year's Gala.
For last year’s theme, “In America; Lexicon of Fashion”, guests were invited to be inspired by “American Independence.” This year’s “In America; An Anthology of Fashion,” encouraged Gala attendees to channel their inner Countess Olenska and bring some of that era to the 21st century. The Gilded Age theme harkens back to the last 30 years of the 19th century when challenges to social and artistic norms were becoming more common and striking, and just before the explosive modernism of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The term was coined by legendary American author Samuel Clements aka Mark Twain, to denote the prosperity, peace, and industrialization of the era following the end of the Civil War in America.
While early on the fundraiser was only one of many philanthropic events in New York City to which members of elite society and fashion attended when Diana Vreeland retired from Vogue and became a special consultant to the Institute, it developed into the ultimate fashion event in America, and one of the most important social events of the calendar. It was during this period that the event was moved from outside venues to the Met Museum itself, and the guest list became including more celebrities among the elements of established “high society.”
When Anna Wintour took over, steroids were introduced. Using the Vreeland model, Wintour took it many steps and people further, creating the exclusive event we see today.
“The Met stairs, the famous red carpet, has grown in spectacle over the years; it’s a kind of theater.” Anna Wintour discusses the Met Gala in the First Monday in May documentary.
Some years have included diamond jewelry and accessories that could be stars in and of themselves. While this year had no major players in the Big Carat sector of diamonds, there were plenty of high fashion stunners that pointed to new and creative uses for diamonds in the future:
Kim Kardashian wore the vintage Jean Louis dress that became one of Marylin Monroe’s signature looks after she wore it to sing “Happy Birthday,” to President John F. Kennedy in 1962. The dress is studded with over 6000 handsewn crystals. While that dress certainly is a stretch on the concept of Gilded Age, it wasn't out of place or time. Marie Antoinette did that two hundred and fifty years ago with about a thousand carats of diamonds. We may expect more in the future, as clothing made of gems is a trend, and after all, fashion is a competitive business.
While Ms. Kardashian opted for legacy in her garment over sheer material wonder, she was not the only one bedecked in wearable jewels. Janelle Monae chose to draw directly from the Gilded era of design, though with an eye fixed solidly on the modernism that came after, and where we are heading in the future.
Also a bejeweled ensemble, Monae’s gown was a flowing cascade of black and white crystals shimmering with the decadent radiance nostalgic of the Gilded Age era; the product of an intense collaboration with Ralph Lauren designers and craftspeople at the highest levels.
And finally, with the real thing: Accompanied by her mother Kate, and perhaps one of the most stunning head-turners at the event, 19-year-old Lila Moss debuted at this Met Gala clad in a Burberry gown, emblazoned with numbers and letters, and bountifully encrusted in real diamonds- like Marie Antoinette.
Most of the remaining diamonds were set in jewelry and accessories, not clothes.
Daisy Jessica Edgar Jones, wore a plethora of Tiffany diamonds, including platinum and diamond earrings from the 2022 Tiffany Blue Book Collection, and two bracelets and rings, each also in platinum and diamonds from the Tiffany Collection.
Several men came with stunning jewels but Joe Jonas may have taken the proverbial icing off the cake with a necklace of platinum with onyx and diamonds, and an 18k gold & diamond ring set with a 5 old-mine-cut diamonds, both from Fred Leighton; and a vintage marquise-cut diamond ring from Tiffany & Co.
Miranda Kerr attended in a low-cut white Oscar de la Renta gown and glittering radiantly in a diamond necklace, bracelet, and stud earrings from Bulgari.
Emma Chamberlain wore Louis Vuitton, accessorized with a vintage Cartier tiara made of platinum and diamonds dated from around 1911.
With a copper tiara symbolizing the statue of liberty, Blake Lively channeled the Gilded Age in style and substance, while her earrings made of 90 carats of diamonds and Colombian emeralds added a delightfully modern touch.